A Timeline of Major Dates in Western Cultural History – to 1900 500s BC Rise of Greek philosophy in Ionia + Southern Italy / Jewish culture in the East Secularist-Materialists : Thales (early 500s), Anaximander (early 500s), Anaximines (mid 500s) Transcendentalist-Mystics : Pythagoras (mid-late 500s), Solon reforms Athens' constitution along democratic lines (early 500s) Cleisthenes reforms Athens along more fully democratic lines (late 500s) Jewish prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah and their disciples refine monotheistic Judaism 400s BC Golden Age of Greece + Hellenic culture / the “Age of Pericles” in Athens Athenians under Themistocles and Miltiades defeat Darius at Marathon (490) Persians more decisively defeated at Salamis (480 BC) and Platea (479 BC) Mystics : Heraclitus (early 400s), Parmenides (early 400s) Materialists : Anaxagoras (mid 400s), Democritus (late 400s - early 300s) Sophists : Protagoras (mid 400s) Socrates (late 400s) Pericles turns the Delan League into an Athenian empire (ca. 460-430 BC) Athens and its allies fight Sparta and its allies in the Peloponnesian Wars (431-404 BC) destroying Athens, devastating the rest of Greece and ending the Golden Age of Greece 300s BC Decline of Classic Hellenic-Greek culture / Rise of Alexander and Hellenistic culture Plato (early 300s) and Aristotle (mid 300s) Cynics/Skeptics : Diogenes (early 300s), Pyrrho of Ellis (late 300s), Macedonian/Greek Alexander the Great conquers from the Nile to the Indus (334-323 BC) Hellenistic (mixture of Greek + Eastern) culture is thus born At his death, Alexander’s empire is carved up into separate kingdoms, the largest of which were: Egypt (the Ptolemies), Syria and the East (the Seleucids) and Macedonia-Greece (the Antigonids) Meanwhile after Rome was burned by the Gauls (387 BC) it recovers – and begins its gradual expansion in northern Italy against the Etruscans, Gauls and Samnites 200s BC Hellenistic culture cynical, passive – and scientific; Rome fights Carthage Cynics : Crates (early 200s); Epicureans: Epicurus (late 300s - early 200s) Stoics : Zeno of Citium (early 200s) Scientists : Aristarchus (early-mid 200s) and Archimedes (mid-late 200s) Rome seizes the Greek kingdoms of southern Italy and Sicily in the Pyrrhic War (280-275 BC) Roman-Carthaginian Punic Wars: 1st (mid 200s); 2nd (late 200s: Hannibal was nearly victorious) 100s BC The Rising Roman Republic defeats Carthage – and Macedonian Greece The 3rd Punic War (mid 100s): Carthage is destroyed (146 BC); Greece is also defeated (146 BC) but its culture is respected and absorbed by the Romans Marius reforms the Roman army, offering poor Romans professional status as full-time soldiers (107 BC) 50s BC Julius Caesar + Roman Army lay the foundations for the military-run Roman Empire Year 1 Jesus is born in Judea Octavius Augustus Caesar builds up Imperial Rome 1st The Roman Empire matures – and Judaism goes into the diaspora century Rome burns, destroying 2/3s of the city (64); Christians are subsequently blamed and persecuted AD Jewish Revolt against Rome (67-70); Jerusalem and the Temple are destroyed (70) – and the Jews banished from Jerusalem Jews at Jamnia (late 1 st century) canonize Hebrew Scripture and outlaw Christianity 100s AD Rome reaches the height of her power The 'Good Emperors' Trajan (98-117), Hadrian (117-138), Antoninus (138-161) and Marcus Aurelius (161-180) bring Roman expansion and its wealth to its greatest extent 200s Rome in a state of material and moral decline For 50 years, 25 emperors are made and unmade in rapid succession by a venal Praetorian Guard Diocletian (285-305) tries to restore Roman discipline – and the purity of 'original' Roman society including the elimination of the detested 'foreign' Christian religion 300s Christianity adopted as the official religion of Rome; but the material decline continues Emperor Constantine (312-337) makes Christianity legal (313); he helps formalize 'Nicene' or Trinitarian Christianity; he moves the imperial capital to Byzantium (Constantinople) The Arian controversy over the nature of Christ develops – producing a lasting split within the faith Emperor Theodosius (379-395) makes Nicene (anti-Arian) Christianity the sole religion (late 300s) Meanwhile Ulfilias spreads Arian Christianity to the German Goths + from there to other German tribes The Romans permit the Visigoths to cross the Danube to escape the Asian Huns (376) But Visigothic-Roman tensions build, the Goths revolt, and the Roman army is crushed at the Battle of Adrianople (378). Obvious to all, Rome can no longer defend itself. 400s Rome in an advanced state of decay and collapse – especially in the West Visigoth chief Alaric conquers the city of Rome in 410 (Ravenna is actually now the Western capital) Germans spread quickly throughout the Western empire: Visigoths + Suevi to Spain, Vandals to North Africa, Franks + Burgundians to Gaul or ‘France,' and Saxons + Angles to Britain or ‘England' Patrick travels to Ireland (mid 400s?) - to help convert Ireland to Nicene Christianity Leo I (bishop or 'pope' 440-461) greatly strengthens Rome as the center of Western Christianity Clovis (King of the Franks) unites much of Gaul and Western Germany (late 400s/early 500s); he converts from paganism to Nicene Christianity (late 400s) 500s Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Justinian (527-565) attempts to restore the Roman Empire But: constant warfare with Persia and the expense of partial Roman reconquest in the West drain physical strength from Byzantine Rome Also: theological splits and assaults on Christian 'heretics' drain moral strength from Byzantine Rome Roman Christianity in the West is strengthened by Benedict (Italian monastic reformer), Pope Gregory (developer of 'Catholic' Christianity), Irish missionaries Columba (to Scotland) and Columban (to Burgundy, Switzerland and Northern Italy) and Roman missionary Augustine (to the Anglo-Saxons) 600s Muhammad's Arabs conquer huge portions of Eastern (Byzantine) Rome + all of Persia A series of Byzantine-Persian wars (613-630) devastates and exhausts both empires Muhammad (630) unites the tribes of Arabia around his Arianist religion, Islam Muslim Arabs overrun much of the Byzantine Empire: Syria (634), Jerusalem (637), Egypt (641) The Persians are completely mastered (633-641) – though they take up dissenting 'Shi'ite' Islam Celtic missionaries continue their work in bringing Germanic West Europe to Nicene Christianity But the Synod of Whitby (664) replaces Celtic Christianity with Roman Christianity in England 700s Spain lost to Islam; Rise of the Carolingian Franks; Muslims fail to capture France Muslim Arabs cross from North Africa to conquer the Visigothic kingdom in Spain (711-718); But they are stopped further north by Frankish general Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours (737) Muslims retreat back into Spain and establish an Islamic Umayyad dynasty there (for 700+ years) Charles Martel establishes the Carolingian dynasty in France. 800s Charlemagne's Empire established – then breaks up; Vikings begin their raids on Europe Charlemagne conquers and unifies France, Germany, and Lombardic Italy; is crowned emperor in 800 A political and cultural revival of sorts stirs within Western Christendom But his warring grandsons divide up and weaken his empire (The Treaty of Verdun: 843) Viking raids are a regular feature of life in Europe – throwing it back into very dark times 900s The height of the Viking Age Viking attacks are constant along the Irish, English, French and Dutch coasts; Swedes invade Russia But Viking (Norman) leader Rollo is permitted (911) by the King Charles to settle the French coast The Normans are quickly Romanized – and brought into Western political-military service Viking (Rus) leader Vladimir of Kiev converts to Byzantine Christianity (988); he dominates East Europe 1000s The first stirrings of a Western revival (which lasts all the way into the 20th century!) Viking King Canute (or Cnute) unites England, Denmark, Norway and parts of Sweden (early 1000s) bringing some degree of stability to Northwestern Europe Saxon England is conquered by French Normans at Hastings (1066) – bringing it more closely into European affairs Benedictine monk Anselm of Canterbury stirs the fires of renewed Christian scholarship (late 1000s) Pope Urban calls the 1st Crusade (1095) to 'liberate' the Holy Lands from Muslim Turks 1100s The Christian West breaks out of its political and intellectual confines The 1st crusade is a success – with Christian kingdoms established in the Holy Lands (1100) Western scholarship develops under French monks Abelard, Bernard, and Lombard Height of the Church-State 'investiture controversy' as Roman Popes and (German) Holy Roman Emperors compete for dominance in the newly rising Europe Saladin manages to retake for the Muslims much of the Crusader gain in the Middle East (later 1100s) But new waves of crusaders arrive (the 2 nd crusade) – though they prove unable to oust Saladin; However East-West commerce begins to replace crusading in importance Venice begins its rise as a rich and powerful commercial-maritime city-state (late 1100s) 1200s The High Middle Ages Muslim Arabs drive out the last of the crusaders at the end of the 1200s but allow commercial + intellectual relations to continue Venice establishes a vast commercial empire around the Eastern Mediterranean Genoa, London, Paris, the city-states of Flanders and the Hansa cities of North Germany also prosper Age of northern (Gothic) cathedrals and cathedral schools (future universities) Age of Scholasticism and